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Topic: Toms (Read 12968 times)

hehehehehe Ten, I gave all my seedlings a little stroke today, and had a little chat to encourage them. Barmey I am! I would have thought May was okay for planting toms out.......or is it? Where are you in the country? I understand from this knowledgeable bunch that some places still suffer with frosts into June! :o

Anyhows, I don't agree Richard, I have tried pots and growbags and I prefer growbags. I found pots become unstable and hard to stake the tall plants where as I plunge a bamboo clean through the growbag into the soil beneath and hey presto - good firm staking. Then I use little plant pots or I cut of the end of a pop bottle and plant that in the growbag next to the tom plant to help with the watering. I guess it is a case of each to their own.

Ah but you see EJ I put my potted toms next to a fence which i have string fitted to. I can then tie the canes to the fence and stop them falling over. The pots are placed on (albeit grotty) soil next to the fence and often root out of the pots into the soil, giving added stability.

I have also discovered a new design of pot on the market which has a slot built into it for the cane. The slots have no bottom so if the pot was placed on soil it would be possible to push the cane into the soil, again for added stability.

Likewise Shifty - I use 10" pots with a saucer. I fill the saucers every morning and check them to see if they need a top up every evening. I grow in soiless compost and feed heavily with tomato food - I'm happy with the crop.

I have green coated wire running across the long length of the greeny and when I get the pots in position, I tie double thickness string down from the wire and around the top of the pot (you know, where the pot steps in slightly). Then I tie the growing toms to the string. No mishaps thus far! ::)AC

Aha Richard. You are all prepared then. I tried in pots in the greenhouse, but I have loads of shelves all around it so nowhere to support them and ended up in a right old mess. The peppers and things weren't so bad as they didn't want to grow as tall.

Ten, I stake my bush ones when they are babies, just loosely tying them to the cane, then I leave them to it. In the past I have had good and bad with bush toms - one year lost loads of fruit to...well slugs I guess, but coulda been anything, then another year had so much fruit I was freezing bags full of whole toms, like red golf balls in my freezer! I should thing that as you are in the centre May will be fine for your toms. Our lottie is dead exposed so I will be watching the other plotters to see when they start with their tender plants. I have been saving all of my pop bottles though to use as little cloches - I am getting sadder and barmier by the day! :P

EJ - sounds like you value your shelf space in the green house more than growing toms there. If you are keen on growing indoor/greenhouse toms you should organise the greenhouse with one side with benches and shelves, the other clear roof to floor and grow the toms either up strings or up canes.

There are certainly benefits to growing tomatoes indoors as well as out, they crop earlier and are less prone to blight, though aphids can be a problem.

Hi everybody,my name is ruud i am living in the netherlands near the coast.The beach is 2 klm away,so we have mild winters,much milder than the rest of holland.I have sow about 40 variaties of tomatoes and that is not the end i have to sow a40 more,but the are the later gropping ones.The early ones are going end of mai outside in pots and i am putting them in the soil early may.So,i have a headstart and so also an early and longer growing season.I do the same with my peppers and chillies.Ruud

Goede morgen Ruud (that is good morning to the rest of you hahaha) and welcome. So glad you joined us. I am Dutch too and have an allotment of 260 m2 in Hoorn NH.

Did I read correctly that you grow 40 varieties of tomatoes and 40 yet to be sown? Maybe you meant plants and not varieties? Whatever the case, I think you can be the tomato expert here. Of all crops discussed on this board, I think tomatoes are one (if not the) of the most talked about crop.

When do you sow tomatoes indoors? What types are your favorite? Which ones for in the greenhouse (kas) and which for outside? What tomato food do you use? I find the stuff I buy in the garden centres very expensive. Have your heard of the blight (aardappelziekte) resistant Ferline tomatoes? (Not available in Holland yet so I get them from England.)

Hi,ina nice to hear from you.I have78 variaties so it was a lie.Not 80 but 78 different of types.Black,green ,white, yellow,purple,striped,green inside and ofcourse red ones. Cherries,beafsteak,normal sized,huge ones.Bush, pole and even a tree<i am not kidding>.I have some big trades in the past autumn.If somebody wants the adresses of them,so you can make contact with them,i will give them.I have an advice.When you sow tomatoseeds,everybody knows that the likewarmth.I put them on top of my aquarium,so they have got warm feet.lol.Ina you are living in hoorn,i am living in heemskerk so it is funny thar we chat with euchother on a british side,weil we only live about 6o klm from euch other.ruud

78 types of tomatoes Ruud? I didn't even know there were that many types. You must have a very big aquarium to fit all the trays on hahaha. I put my tomato and pepper seed trays on an electric heating pad, that should work.

I only grow Ferline tomatoes now because at the allotment complex we got blight (aardappelziekte) every year in the other types I tried. Ferlines are blight resistant and they did very well last summer. Wonderful tomato too.

I grew up very near Heemskerk, in IJmuiden so I know the area well. Every summer of my youth, we lived on the beach in a beach cabin from april to september, not much gardening there hehe.

Have been reading all the above and am green with envy because you're all sowing tomato seeds....I'd decided not to even try to grow them....the reason being...I live in a flat....have only a tiny window sill in my kitchen which at present is housing my potatoes that are 'chitting' and a bag of asparagus 'roots' I managed to buy in Wilko's last week in Chelmsford on one of my regular visits.....I've not got a garden at all and no shed, greenhouse or cold frame (as yet) on my lottie....so there didn't seem much point....however...last Saturday, before I went away...I went to a Valentine dance - something new for me, not danced for several years....and guess what I won....a pack of Moneymaker seeds, with mini propagator (78 seeds it says on packet)...so now feel I want to 'have a go'.....if I sow them soon, maybe as soon as I've planted some of the potatoes....do you think there's any hope of me raising them on the lottie?....I guess I'd have to put them in grow bags and be prepared to get up there in the summer months on a daily basis to water them.....or should I give them to someone who stands a better chance than me....don't like 'not have a go' now I've got them....oh and I also won a garden refuse carry bag at the same time!!...now that I can use!....H.P.

Hey hotpot, why would you wanna raise them in a grow bag if you have your lottie? Why not plant them in the ground? I would have a go, you have no excuse, and there is no reason why you can't sow them in March, I bet you will get a huge crop, and they will grow quicker as it is warmer and lighter by then. have a go!!! ;D

Hi richard,i mayby late or not,but i have the information you want.The tomato sungella is discribed om the side;www.thompson-morgen.com.uk,go to tomatoes and search for sungella.So ina you grew up in ijmuiden,dus dan ben je een viskop,lol,sorry little bit fun between fellow dutchies.To protect ina i would not translate it in english,sorry.And bytheway i have a very big aquarium.E.j. i hope you have fun with the seeds.